Design of electronically steerable linear arrays with evolutionary algorithms

This paper deals with the design of electronically steerable linear arrays for intelligent antenna systems. The design problem is modeled as a multi-objective optimization problem with non-linear constraints. The well-known NSGA-II and SPEA 2 algorithms are employed as the methodologies to solve the resulting optimization problem. The main goal and contribution of this paper is computation of the trade-off curves between side lobe level and main beam width for steerable linear arrays. The addressed problem considers a driving-point impedance restriction placed on each element in the array. This consideration makes the problem more restrictive and therefore more difficult to solve. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the algorithms for the design of steerable linear arrays.